


O Christmas Tree

by hgleiser



Series: Wrong Direction [9]
Category: Formula 1 RPF
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 23:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7408621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hgleiser/pseuds/hgleiser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Christmastime for our beloved housemates and they've got a busy month ahead of them starting with finding the perfect tree.  Rated G for obscene amounts of cute.  Mahoosive thanks to L. and A. for the beta/tolerance of me sending excerpts in the middle of the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	O Christmas Tree

**Author's Note:**

> It's Christmas in July because when I started this series I was so excited about writing holiday fluff that there was no way I was waiting for December to do advent fics. I have no idea if there are actually choose-and-cut tree farms in the UK but since I grew up very near one of the largest Christmas tree growing areas in the US, I thought it'd be fun to let these guys experience a fictionalized version of what I did for many years as a kid the first weekend of December.

“This one?”

“Mate, it’s shorter than me!”

“And who ends up trying to put the star on top every year? Me. I’m going easy on myself.”

Jenson trudged further up the hill, sipping from the disposable cup of tea that was ever present during colder months. “Lewis, we’ll get Mark to do it. See? Problem solved. We’ll find a tree so tall even _he’ll_ need a ladder!”

“I heard that!” Mark called from the bottom of the hill and hugged himself tightly to ward off a sudden chilly wind. “Bugger, it’s cold.”

“Is too cold to be outside. We should go to Spain for Christmas and find a tree in the sunshine,” complained Fernando from next to him. “I don’t like this.”

Mark moved to wrap his arms around Fernando’s waist from behind and rested his chin on the shorter man’s shoulder. “This is the last year we’re humoring them, Nano. Next year we’re going to Spain, Australia, Brazil...anywhere I don’t need long underwear to survive the holiday.” He kissed Fernando’s cheek. “I promise you that.”

“And then no excuse to warm me up. What will we do then?”

“Warmer weather,” whispered Mark, each breath tickling Fernando’s ear, “means less clothing when we go to bed.”

“Mmmm...am not so cold now...”

Sebastian glanced over his shoulder down the hill and heaved a long-suffering sigh. “God, that’s what we’re going to be seeing all day as soon as we hang the mistletoe. No one else will have a turn.”

“I bought enough for every doorway,” mumbled Kimi from behind a tree in the adjacent row. “I’m sure you and Jenson will have plenty of chances.”

“Seven bedrooms, front door, back door, three bathrooms...twelve. Did you include closets?”

“No. They only had twelve anyway.” Kimi shrugged. “Ask Lewis. It was his idea. I told him no one gave a shit where he kissed Nico, he didn’t need an excuse as long as he didn’t do more than that in front of us. I don’t understand.”

_I understand,_ thought Sebastian.  _They’re still in that head -over-heels phase. If you think you feel light in the head, you’re that much lighter in your wallet. The flowers, the nights out, the gifts...I understand perfectly even if I haven’t gone through it myself._ He laughed as he remembered Mark’s comment from across the dinner table the week before of “You and Jenson act a bit...married, you know. I walk through the living room on my way to bed and I see two happy blokes with a bowl of popcorn and a bad comedy. It’s like you’ve been together for longer than this.” 

_Except we aren’t together...yet._

With all of his confidence in doling out advice on everything from love to lemon bars—the latter courtesy of his sweet tooth he’d been recently learning to indulge by baking—the prospect of telling Jenson how he felt was more than a little daunting for Sebastian. How was he supposed to say “I love you” to a man who seemed to already know how to go about doing it? Waiting for Jenson to make the first move would only make him more anxious or worse, give him too much time to convince himself that a relationship wasn’t worth pursuing. The  _why_ couldn’t have felt more obvious, as Mark had proven. All that remained was  _how_ and  _when_ . 

“Seb.”

“Yes, Kimi?”

“You’ve been staring in Jenson’s general direction like an idiot for almost five minutes. Come on, let’s catch up and knowing him he’s probably still looking. How long does it take to find a tree, anyway?”

Nico walked past them then, glancing up the hill as he paused to wrap his scarf more snugly around his neck. “Longer than you’d think according to Jenson. He says most of them are shaped more like bushes than trees and since no one he knows has ever had a tinsel-covered bush as part of a proper British Christmas, the search goes on.”

“Nice scarf.” Sebastian felt the soft dark blue knit between his fingers. “New?”

“Yeah, Lewis gave me an early present because he knew it’d be really cold this weekend. It helps.” Nico beamed. “I told him I could wait for Christmas but he insisted.”

_Of course he did,_ thought Sebastian. 

“Is he still up there with Jenson?” asked Kimi.

“I saw them a couple minutes ago toward the top and it’s really steep so be careful.” Nico turned and began making his way back with the two of them trailing behind. “I hope we’re done soon, we’ve still got to get home and get it in the living room without Mark and Fernando wanting to throw us out and handle it themselves.”

“For the record, I made sure there’s not a single package of tinsel icicles in the house.” Sebastian grinned. “That way this year there’s no argument.”

“What’s with your passionate hatred of tinsel icicles? You almost started a fight last year over it, remember?”

“Nico, they’re messy, they’re ugly, and they cover up all the ornaments. It defeats the point of having ornaments in the first place. Besides...I like seeing my little seagull.”

A small ceramic seagull in flight suspended from a wire so thin that it appeared to be floating between branches was Sebastian’s pride and joy among the boxes of decorations the seven of them had amassed over the years. It had been a gag gift of sorts from Fernando on their first Christmas all together, chosen as a cheeky reminder of the incident months before in which he’d almost wrecked a rental car on a beach holiday by swerving to miss a pair of seagulls who took no notice of a bright red sports car speeding toward them.

 

***

 

“You weren’t even close!” Lewis, who had been in the passenger seat, had protested on the trip back home in the middle of Sebastian’s long-winded explanation of what had happened.

“You should give him a hard time because he doesn’t brake for animals,” Sebastian had told Fernando, who was taking his turn driving while Mark slept. “He’d have hit those seagulls. Mind the animals!”

One look in the rearview mirror at Sebastian’s giddy grin and bright eyes had told Fernando everything he needed to know.  _Must have been good wine at lunch._

“You know what, Seb? I’m gonna have to buy you some seagulls or something.” Lewis had laughed and taken off his sunglasses a moment to wipe the lenses on his shirt. “Maybe that’s your Christmas present for this year.”

Fernando had immediately made a mental note to tell Lewis he already had something in mind.

 

***

 

“You could always put your own tree in your room,” Nico pointed out. “With no icicles and a couple more seagulls.”

Kimi elbowed Nico in the ribs. “A couple, huh? Seb, you can name them after he and Lewis.”

Sebastian grinned until Nico rolled his eyes and began walking twice as quickly up the path in the direction of Lewis and Jenson’s voices. “Very mature, you two.”

Sebastian and Kimi snickered like a pair of schoolboys as they hurried to catch up.

“Who said anything about mature? It’s Christmastime.”

“I agree, but clearly this is not the way of the kingdom of Rosberg.”

Before Nico could look over his shoulder and deliver the most withering glare possible, Jenson’s shout from the crest of the hill echoed across the farm. “FOUND ONE!”

Fernando and Mark both sighed in relief, Mark’s arms still secure around Fernando’s waist to keep the two of them warm by way of close contact. “Took them long enough. I think we deserve cocoa with extra marshmallows when we get home for freezing our asses off.”

“Si, you are too good to me.”

“As good as you deserve, buddy. Should we go help or let them fend for themselves?”

Fernando leaned back against Mark with a grin. “Am too comfortable. We’ll help them get it in the house and after that, I promise.”

“Fair enough.” Mark gently rocked Fernando from side to side for a moment. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

Meanwhile, standing next to the eight foot tall tree Jenson had chosen, Lewis pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened Snapchat. “Mate, get over here!”

Jenson came bounding over like an excited puppy and waved to the camera. “We’ve just found a  _mega_ tree so it’s officially Christmastime here. Time to get it home and start the fun bits after we warm up! Cheers!”

“We’ve got a long afternoon ahead of us but this is one of our favorite times of year,” added Lewis. “Wish you were all here to help us! Have a wonderful holiday season.” Posting the video, he pocketed his phone again to get a closer look. “You think it’s big enough?”

“Oh yeah. Mark’s going to either need a ladder or Fernando on his shoulders this time. You stay here and I’ll go get the bloke with the saw. Don’t want anyone calling dibs on it.” Jenson hurried back down the hill, almost bumping into Kimi in his haste. “Found one! Going to see about getting it cut.”

“We heard you,” mumbled Kimi. “Everyone did.”

Sebastian nodded in agreement, a bemused twinkle in his eye. “We’ll go wait with Lewis until you come back. Knowing you, it’s probably big enough to need all of us to move.”

“You’ll see!” Jenson grinned then continued on, happily humming a tune Sebastian was sure was O Christmas Tree to himself.

Ahead of them, Nico appeared from around the other side of the tree and stood next to Lewis, sliding his arm around Lewis’s shoulders. “Are you cold? I’m freezing.”

“Nah, I’m used to terrible weather. You live here long enough or grow up here, you learn to live with it. I guess that’s one of the things you probably miss the most about home. Home as in Monaco, not Germany. It’s even colder there!”

Nico nodded. “It’s nice to have sunshine, but I like seeing the leaves change like they do here and there’s nothing like the Lake District there. Besides...” He leaned in to steal a brief kiss that lingered on their lips for moments afterward. “...England has you.”

Lewis tilted his head to one side to rest his temple on Nico’s shoulder and smiled. “And you.”

A moment later, Sebastian’s head emerged from around the front of the tree. “Awwwwwww. Don’t let us interrupt...” He gestured to Kimi next to him. “We’ll just stand here and mind our own business while someone comes to get this tree. It’s beautiful! I can’t wait to start decorating it and find a nice place for my seagull and the little carousel horse I made when I was seven and the motorcycle will have to go near the top because it’s a bit heavy and uh...” He smiled, gazing at the top of the tree and imagining where the miniature BMW bike would need to be placed. “Yeah.”

Kimi quickly wiped the smile off his face to hide the glee he felt watching Sebastian practicing his favorite hobby aside from collecting racing driver autographs and giving the longest interview answers in human history: annoying Nico and Lewis. Being eight years apart Kimi had often thought of Sebastian as both his best friend and little brother and, like any younger sibling, he had a talent for getting on someone’s last nerve then getting away with it in the space of one sweet smile.

“Seb, do you mind giving us some privacy?” Lewis lifted his head a moment. “Kind of in the middle of something...”

“Of course not!” Sebastian flashed his most winning smile and stood well out of the way next to Kimi. “Continue.”

“You little shit,” muttered Kimi, pretending to be annoyed. “Stay over here.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll behave,” Sebastian whispered, clasping his hands behind his back and frowning at the overcast winter skies. “But it’s a bit boring.”

Minutes later, Jenson came up the path accompanied by a man holding a large chainsaw. “What d’you mean, boring? It’s been brilliant.” He gestured to the tree, which had a white ribbon tied around its highest branch to indicate its price. “It’s the tall one there where my friends are. Lewis! Nico! Stand well back!”

“We’ll pick up where we left off later,” Lewis whispered in Nico’s ear as he took his hand and led him to stand next to Jenson.

Nico nodded and waved to Sebastian and Kimi. “You two need to do the same.”

The five of them watched as the tree was felled then hurried to pick it up with Lewis and Nico at the front, Sebastian and Kimi behind them, and Jenson bringing up the rear after he’d paid and the man with the chainsaw had gone back down the path.

“I love that smell,” Jenson sighed. “Wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t real.”

“Mark and Fernando are going to kill us,” groaned Nico. “Where are we going to put one this big?”

“By the picture window, right Jense? It’ll look great at night all lit up.”

“Exactly, Lewis.”

“With no icicles!” Sebastian chimed in.

Jenson cleared his throat. “Right, you all know the words. O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches...”


End file.
